So I took my car into the shop to have it all checked over a while back and they told me I need to replace my rotors and brake pads. Which I guess means my rear brakes are fine since my car only has front disk brakes. They also mention that I need to get my belts changed ( If anyone knows what this incompasses please tell me. ) and I need to get a new water pump. Now for the questions -

Car type Silver 2000 Civic DX Hatch

1. Does anyone know a good company to go with for new rotors and brake pads? I am looking for something in the middle, this is not a racer is what I am trying to say, I still want quality to an extent.

2. Since I am down there does anyone know of any good calipers I can trade these old rusty looking ones for? Any links?

3. For the "Belts" I guess its the timing belt or something but for the question if I decided to get the AEM Pulley kit would this replace the gears and belts that the shop was more then likely talking about? The AEM pulley kit says it comes with belts.

4. While talking about Pulleys if/when I replace the pulleys with these AEM Pulleys will the cause any future damage to the car by changing the pulleys to lighter ones? Not sure how it works so thought I would throw it out. (I have this question up on one of my other posts so sorry if you already answered this I just like double confirmation :P )

5. I was looking on ebay and saw some new water pumps on some honda parts store on there. Heres a link I just need confirmation that this thing isnt a piece of junk and is a good deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-W...mZ110020681828

Last but not least - 6. In yall's opinion what will be the difficulty level of replacing the above objects into my car? This including 1. Brake Rotors 2. Brake Pads 3. Brake Calipers 4. AEM Pulley / Or just the Belts 5. Water Pump


edit: I was just reading something else and I think the AEM pulleys are not for what I think they are so yah. Maybe I will just buy a new timing belt and replace that. That couldnt be to hard.

I havent done any of this myself before so thats why I know none of this but my dad is not bad on cars. we are just wondering which ones are worth trying by ourselves so we dont waste time on something to hard.

Sorry for such a huge mess of questions I am just trying to get the car back up to 100% and want to try it myself. :P

 

Unless you have major damage to your rotors you shouldn't have to replace them. They may just need to be “re-surfaced." Your brake pads do need changing along with your timing belt. It wouldn't hurt to get a new water pump because it will probably fail later down the road. Changing the drive belts (belts that operate power steering, water pump, alternator, z/c) wouldn't hurt either.

I would recommend honda parts, but Good Year is one of my favorites. I would stay away from Firestone because they don't seem very honest, well at least not around my area.
Changing your pulleys to any other ones other than the manufacture might be risky. I'd stick with OEM parts including those for you pads and calipers. If you plan on upgrading your brake system I would talk to a high performance shop and see about getting a improving upon all the braking system (brakes, calipers, rotors) so they will match with each other.

I wouldn't recommend buying parts on ebay only because of the risk of the parts failing and the hassle of returns, etc. If you plan on doing the parts yourself I would recommend a haynes manual. It's informative. The drive belts and water pump aren't too hard to replace. The timing belt is tricky, but with the right tools and guidance it can be done. Still I would have a shop do it.

 

Step one, get a Chilton's/Hanye's/etc. manual to assist you with general repair of the vehicle if you've never worked on cars before, we'll convert you.
Let's investigate the issues:
1. Brake pads, rotors.
Unless you or the previous owners have been really pushing it, there is no reason you need new rotors at 90K. A simple resurface/turning should do at your local machine shop. Pads are an easy thing to do with a manual/dad's help if you've never done them before. Your rear drums are worth investigating if they have'nt been changed either (any squealing?)
2. Calipers
Unless you are racing or doing something beyond normal driving with the vehicle, some rusty looking calipers are not an issue. Everything an the underside will look like crap after about 50K.
3. Belts
If the timing belt has not been preivously changed on this vehicle, CHANGE IT NOW. The life is only about 90K. The timing belt is the lifeblood of your upper engine, if it breaks during driving your valves will be trashed, which potentially means total upper engine rebuild (which I'm assuming you don't want to do.) As far as p/s, alternator, a/c belts, you need to change those too...these are easy with some help from a manual/your dad.
4. Pulleys
Let's not worry about this until we get through the other stuff.
5.Water pump
I didn't check the links, but NAPA or Carquest are good in my experience.
6. Difficulty
None of these things you have asked about are necessarily difficult. You need the tools to do it yourself, however. A set of 3/8" drive mm sockets at the least, metric box/open end wrenches, a prybar, and some air tools (impact wrench to remove the crankshaft bolt for timing belt replacement,) and ideally a torque wrench that covers the important range of values for what you are working on will do.
Good luck, I'll check on you.

 

Changing a timing belt isn't that easy. Its also one of those things that if you screw it up your in big trouble. I wouldn't try it unless you know the procedure in and out. Brakes are easy and i don't think you will have a problem. Even though you don't race, getting a better set of pads might not hurt. I have Hawk ceramic pads and they work well for me.

 

Alright thanks for the help. I will ask again if the rotors need to be check or just resurfaced when I bring them in. I think I will get some of those Hawk brake pads I saw on the procivic site. As for the water pump I will check NAPA and see what they have.

For the belts I will look into all the drive belts and try to do those myself. I will have the timing belt changed at the shop since this is my first time maybe I will try that next time.

As for calipers how does one go about painting those? Any specific paint I should use anyone have a link to a how-to.

For the pulleys I will just not worry about it.

thanks for the help!

For the timing belt and the other drive belts should I just stick with the OEM ones or could I buy some off a site that will work as well of better that look a bit cooler then just black? So my engine bay looks a little bit different....lol I havent done much so I am just trying to change things up.

 

usually the place you take it will get the belt - if i was getting one, i would get it at autozone - think they got the best deal.
the better quality belts for accessories i find at hi-lo oreilly - will get a lifetime guarantee.

 

i would only buy a honda oem timing belt, because its cheap insurance in my book, and the water pump should be changed at the same time because it is driven off the timing belt, and not an easy change. i use ebc greenstuff pads work really well. new rotors wouldn't hurt they are cheap like 20 buck ea at autozone, but resurfacing would be cheaper.

 

Rotors you can maybe find even cheaper. rotors for my teg where only 12 bucks for the rear and 15 for the front. Ef4life helped me do that. easy work for brakes. i don't know about drums though.

 

Ya I have drums on the back and I dont think its easy to switch those over to disk or I would because it looks better. As for the rotors I did see those cheap ones and since yall have them I guess thats not bad then. I was just thinking it was a "you get what you pay for moment" when I was looking at those. The autopart warehouse on ebay like a referenced to above has some rotors that are both slotted and drilled that would run me about 70 ea I was looking at getting the rotors and hawk hp plus pads and spending near 200.

If the cheap rotors will work just as good then I will go that way but I have no problem spending the 200 if those rotors would be better in the long run. they are EBC rotors so I could get the green stuff pads by ebc to go with them.

I think I will just bring my car into the shop to have the pump and belts done. I bet that will cost around 200 as well.....I saw a timing belt kit I could buy off ebay that said it was all OEM stuff. It had water pump timing belt and drive belts for around 100 shipped. I was thinking about buy that kit and bringing to my local shop and just asking them to install it. Thought it might save money over all. What do yall think about that?

I am actually in chicago right now and will be doing this all when I get home wednesday. So my car has a 1400 mile drive tomorrow to do......I will still be under 90k thought. I will prob sit at 89500 lol.

 

You should use caliper paint. You can get it here: Auto Body Toolmart Caliper Paint